1. Field of the Description
The present invention relates, in general, to devices and methods for providing a three-dimensional (3D) display in a glasses-free manner, and, more particularly, to a 3D display device using content-adaptive lenticular prints and using a non-uniform lens pattern (e.g., non-uniform lenticule configuration) in the lenticular sheet (or lens array, lenticular print, or the like) to display the printed content (e.g., interlaced content provided in a planar sheet or in a non-planar arrangement when the lenses/lenticules are arranged in a non-planar configuration).
2. Relevant Background
Displays that provide the illusion of three dimensions have experienced a rebirth in the past few years. For example, lenticular displays (sometimes called lenticular prints) are a popular medium for producing automultiscopic, glasses-free 3D images. A typical lenticular display includes a lens array or lenticular sheet of lenticules or lenslets for viewing interlaced images in printed content under the lenslets. The images emitted from the lenticular sheet are offset in a way that is perceived by a viewer as a 3D image, and the 3D image changes with movement of the viewer to a new position or by movement of the lenticular display.
While most commercial displays rely on the use of special glasses, it is generally agreed by those in the industry that automultiscopic displays, i.e., displays able to provide 3D vision without glasses or headgear, offer significant advantages. The predominant automultiscopic technology presently in use (e.g., the technology behind lenticular displays) is based on parallax-type displays, which create the illusion of three dimensions by physically separating viewing rays coming from the displays. The ray separation is often achieved by placing tiny lens arrays in front of a display surface (e.g., interlaced printed content or images). However, these lenticular lens arrays are always arranged on a regular grid with the lenslets or lenticules being uniform in cross sectional shape and arranged in a plane to accommodate the maximum possible depth. Unfortunately, 3D scenes often do not cover all depth ranges throughout the scene, and local patches of the scene are not effectively presented by such displays.
Work and research has been performed to improve the quality of lenticular display devices. Most work has concentrated in areas such as integral imaging, parallax barrier-type displays, and multi-layer light field displays. Some improvements have been obtained such as with increased resolution and depth of field, but none of these efforts has been optimized for a given scene, which has led to sub-optimal results. Therefore, there remains a need for an improved lenticular display device or apparatus that more effectively displays a wide variety of captured scenes or display content (e.g., that does not use a one-size (or one lenticular lens array) fits all content-type design).